Who am I Welcoming?Encouraging?Loving?

To all who are looking down
Holding on to hearts still wounding
For those who've yet to find it
The place is near where love is moving
Cast off the robes you're wearing
Set aside the names that you've been given
May this place of rest in the fold of your journey
Bind you to hope
You will never walk alone

We will live
We will live (Never walk alone)
In the shelter of each other
We will live
We will live (Your arms are all around us)

If our hearts are turned to stone
There is hope we know the rocks will cry out
And the tears aren't ours alone
Let them fall into the hands that hold us
Come away from where you're hiding
Set aside the lies that you've been living
May this place of rest in the fold of your journey
Bind you to hope
We will never walk alone

In the shelter of each other
We will live
We will live (In the shelter)
In the shelter of each other
We will live
We will live (You will never walk alone)

In the shelter of each other
We will live
We will live (In Your arms are all around us)
In the shelter of each other
We will live
We will live (In Your arms are all around us)

If there is any peace
If there is any hope
We must all believe
Our lives are not our own
We all belong

God has given us each other
And we will never walk alone

"Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone"- Andy Stanley

We are called to serve one another. We are called to encourage and lift up one another.and we are called to serve God. What better way to serve our God than to lift up those He has surrounded us with. He has place certain people in our life for a reason at a specific time. My question is what can I do for them to better serve God? We are not meant to take this journey of life alone God has placed people in our lives so that we can take this journey together. We cant do it on our own we need each other!Life is never easy and He never promised it would be sometimes we go through things that no one understands why, but we just have to trust that God has a plan through it all. I want to be someone who encourages, loves and welcomes any one around me.I hope that when the people around me are in pain they can count on me for prayer,encouragement and just to be someone who will love on them.Mark 2:1-12 Is the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man, his friends heard that Jesus was in town so THEY BROUGHT THEIR FRIEND TO JESUS TO BE HEALED.I pray that I am that type of friend when those I have been surrounded with are weak and unable to come to Jesus, that I will bring them to Jesus by lifting them up in prayer and by showing then God's love and hope. I want to be a shelter for the people in my life, I want them to know that they never have to walk alone because I am someone they can count on to be there for them not just when life is easy, but when it's hard,really hard.I may not have all the right words to say or know exactly what they should do, but I know God has a plan for everything and that when I don't know what else to do , just lift our requests up in prayer, God will answer them in His timing!Psalm 40:1-2 says "I waited patiently for the Lord and He heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand".He will lift them out of the pit and set their feet on solid ground. I know there is far to much suffering in the world for me to eleaveate everyone suffering and i wish i could sometimes its just so overwhelming all the pain that goes on in the world and I feel like I could just be praying forever for all the need there is ,but what we need to focus on is the select God has placed in our path and do for them what we wish we could do for everyone.I am not saying that we should not pray for all the pain and suffering in the world we should, but lets focus our time and energy on those specifically He has place in our life, He has them there for a reason. So Reach one for Christ, then another, then another.Who specifically has God placed in your life, at this time that needs your encouraging?loving? or lifting up in prayer?

New Year's Resolutions

Psalms 16:6+8 "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;surely I have a delightful inheritance.I have set the Lord ALWAYS before me .Because He is my right hand I will not be shaken."

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you Be strong and courageous.Do not be terrified;do not be discouraged,for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Proverbs 16:9 "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps"

1 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

These are a few verses I want to focus on this year.This year as I go through the Worship the King devotional I want to discover what worship really means to me and what does a true worshiper look like in God's eyes? How do I worship the King? and What does it mean to present myself as a living sacrifice? This is going to be a year of great change and I have no idea what is ahead of me but God knows every detail and I am just going to trust His plan and wait and see what He has in store for me, all I know is this is going to be the year that changed m life...

Resolutions:
1.Do bible lesson 365 days- and spend 30 minutes in the morning starting the day out right
2.Read a leadership or spiritual growth book a month
3.Read through the bible chronologically
4.Do inductive bible study with five books of the bible
5.Only watch TV shows on tivo and facebook after dark- no useless time watching tv or on computer
6.Run 2 races (5k and 10k)

Bring on the year that is going to change my life! Lead the way God I will follow!

Take me away

Traveling has always been a goal of mine there are so many things out in the world I would love to see, to do and so many different people to meet.Even when I started school I knew I wanted to choose a major that would allow me to travel and interact with people of different cultures. I think it is so interesting how different we think we are from everyone else around the world but really we are all exactly the same and just have different ways of doing the same exact things as everyone else around the world. I decided to compile a list of all the places I want to go and all the things I want to see, so here it is:

Costa Rica

Egypt- temples of karnak,valley of the kings,sphinx,pyrmids of giza

France- Paris(of course, notre dame,Arc de Triomphe,palace of Versailles

Germany-Munich

Greece- the acropolis,Delphi,Olympia

Israel

Ireland

Italy- Rome's catacombs,pompeii,The Colosseum, leaning tower of pisa,the pantheon,trevi fountain an i have always wanted to go wine tasting and there is no better place for it, and just like in eat,love,pray I want to eat my way through Italy!

Israel
Jordan-Petra is the number one place i want to go see

UK

That's most of my list for now, More will be added later for sure! Too much to see and so little time!

Forgiveness

Matthew18:21-22
"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord ,how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered,I tell you not seven times but seventy-seven times!"

"Exercising forgiveness doesn't mean we have to pretend nothing happened. It doesn't mean we weren't deeply hurt by that persons actions. Nor does it mean that we have to continue trusting this person after his or her character flaws become evident.Forgiveness simply means that we let go of our need for vengeance so that we can live without the negative effects of that person's sin."- Shannon Ethridge(Completely Blessed)

"Conflict starts in our thinking"
"Focus on what's right not who's right"- Pastor Jays sermon(10/30/2010)

1Peter3:9
"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but WITH BLESSING, BECAUSE TO THIS YOU WERE CALLED so that you may inherit a blessing."

It is so easy to hold a grudge and I must say I am the best at it. It is definitely not something I am proud of, but it is the truth. And I must say family members are the easiest to not forgive one can hold something over their heads forever because they are family and it is expected that they will always be there no matter what we say and do. But that still does not mean that we don't hurt them by the grudges we are holding and by holding their past sins over their heads! Personally, I have done this to someone I love for a long time I have tried to make their life as miserable as possible ,by not allowing a relationship between them and I and them and other members of my family. I have constantly talked bad about this person and made sure that all her past sins were known and that they felt separated from everyone else. No it was definitely not right and something I am ashamed to say I did for so long! I knew it was wrong to being with but for years now I have tried to justify it by saying what they did to me was wrong, what they did to so and so was wrong, how they treat this person is wrong and their lifestyle is not something I admire or want to strive to be like but all those excuses are COMPLETELY WRONG!!!! Yes what they did was wrong, and how they treated others was wrong and the life they once lived may not be something I admired or strived for, but there is no excuse that can justify the behavior I expressed toward this person. I could have experienced such joy and blessings from this person over the years but I chose to cut them off from everything, I know it hurt them but I was also just hurting myself. I know they have gone through some hard things in life that I will never have to experience and I should have long ago just given their wrongs toward me and given them to God and forgiven them. I don't know what was going on in their life that made them do those things, but I should have been sympathetic toward them and tried to help them out instead of becoming bitter. All that said if I could take back the last two years and the wickedness I expressed toward this person I would. They did not deserve that and I am truly sorry for any pain I have caused them. I want them to know I forgive them and I hope one day I could be forgiven as well. I know we are now not who we once were and I hope God will bring us back together one day.

Big God

Our God- Chris Tomlin
Water you turned into wine
Opened the eyes of the blind
There's no one like you
None like you
Into the darkness you shine
Out of the ashes WE RISE
There's no one like you
None like you
OUR GOD IS GREATER
OUR GOD IS STRONG
GOD YOU ARE HIGHER THAN ANY OTHER
OUR GOD IS HEALER
AWESOME IN POWER
OUR GOD OUR GOD
Into the darkness you shine
Out of the ashes we rise
There's no one like you
None like you
OUR GOD IS GREATER
OUR GOD IS STRONG
GOD YOU ARE HIGHER THAN ANY OTHER
OUR GOD IS HEALER
AWESOME IN POWER
OUR GOD OUR GOD
And if our God is for us
THEN WHO CAN EVER STOP US?
And if our God is with us
Then what could stand against?

Matthew 17:20
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and IT WILL MOVE. NOTHING will be impossible for you!"

Let Jesus be the object of my faith and my pursuit be only for him. So often i get caught up in striving to have more faith and i loose the aspects of who i am really striving to have more faith in, Jesus.I do struggle with having more faith and fully trusting God with ALL aspects of my life and not just with the ones i have control over but with things that have anything to do with my future , which i have absolutely no control over or idea of those are the hard things to give up like my future spouse,my future career,and the infinite number of things that have to do with my future and these are the things i have the least control over, the more control i have over something the easier it is to give it up to God because i can really say in my head that i have already handled it but by me giving those to him i am not showing my complete faith and really do I have control over anything no, because things could change in a second.I want to trust God with absolutely everything, his plans are far better than mine and his ways are so much higher than mine, it's just a matter of giving up my idea of the perfect life for his idea of what he thinks is perfect for me. He is stronger, greater, and higher than anything else in my life and i am completely trusting him with everything and if i am completely trusting him there is NOTHING that can come between God and his plans for me! Bring it on life my God already has a future planned out for me and i am going to trust he knows what is best despite the lack of control i possess, He has all control!

*At His Feet Devotional-Chris Tiegreen

I am a heir of Christ

So tonight at ROCS we watched the new Inheritances videos by Beth Moore, love her! She made some very valid points tonight that really made me think. First, she started off by encouraging us to think about the year that changed my life??? For me this is the year that everything in my life is going to change for the past 16 years my life has been consumed with school.Now as i prepare to graduate college this year all of that is about to change. Right now in my life is a period of change, so many things going on. Two more quarters left in school, deciding what i want to do with the rest of my life, do i want to attend graduate school? if so where? Do i want to stay in California or move out of state finally, will i ever meet the man of my dreams and get married,where should i apply for a future job? Am i ever going to get an internship? Is this interview on Wednesday going to go well? So many unknowns, but it does not matter because i have my eyes focused on God and letting him direct my every step. Second thing i learned from the video was that God has made me an heir in Christ and in 1 Corinthians 2:9 it says, "No eye has seen,no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him". He has something far better for me that i could ever imagine, now what i need to do is trade in my dreams for his phenomenal realities that he has to give me, so i stand here waiting for his perfect timing with my arms wide open to whatever he wants to give me, because it is far better than anything i could conjugal up. Third, your not having fun cause your a control freak and if you know me you definitely know that i am a control freak and its hard to let go, but i am learning that sometimes who really cares that they play panels are in a specific,organized order or who cares if my cd collection is out of whack because my lady antebellum cd is next to audio adrenaline, its not going to kill anyone and there are far more important things to consume my mind with like reaching one more soul for Jesus. Lastly, Psalms 16:6 ESV- The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;indeed, I have a BEAUTIFUL INHERITANCE! God has something waiting for me and all i have to do is accept it. So goal for the week is to figure out: 1) Because i know i have a beautiful inheritance awaiting me, how is that going to change my life this week? 2) How does one act who is waiting to receive their beautiful inheritance?

Mommy and Me trip

So i just got back from my trip with mom my we went up to auburn, ca to see my moms best friend Charmaine. on the way we stopped at the sequoias. then we went to San Francisco with them. while there we got to go to this really cool science museum, which had a planetarium, aquarium rain forest and the roof was made of flowers , we also got to go to this great breakfast place called Dottie's IT WAS AMAZING!!!! my mom saw it on Diners drive in and drive thurs or whatever the show is called. we also got to go to a huge antique roadshow it was so cute and fun it made me wish that i had my own house to decorate!!! i just love all the shabby chic stuff!!!then we went to the Hollands house for a few days and my mom and Charmaine just sewed and we went to like 10 fabric stores. this year their crafts we making aprons, baby bibs and pot holders. then My mom and me went horse back riding. i had not even petted a horse before that!! it was alot of fun and just amazing!!!it was great to just have some girl time with my mom and Charmaine, they are truly amazing godly women that i look up to. and every year we just have a great time with each other, just hanging out and being total girls!!! Next year we are either going to rent a house in monterey or down in laguna!!!! YEAH i cant wait!!!